Tony Redgrave



Tony Redgrave is the alias used by Dante in the novel Devil May Cry Volume 1 by Shin-Ya Goikeda, as well as in "Mission 08: Once Upon A Time" of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.

Personality
Although he's constantly getting his hands bloodied by his profession, his mindset is that of a child in the novel. He expresses this by imagining zombies surrounding him and "playing" with new guns he receives from the local gunsmith, Nell Goldstein, and when he plays with his partner's (Grue) children by making a complete mess at the dinner table with them bouncing on his knees.

Devil May Cry Volume 1
Dante used Tony Redgrave as a different persona. As Tony he takes random mercenary jobs, and after his mother died he moved on and tried to forget. Near the end of the novel after Nell's death, whom he viewed as his mother, he took on his true name Dante and embraced his past. After this his sword lightens and changes form.

Also, the novel explains where the inscription "For Tony Redgrave. By .45 Art Warks" on the Ebony & Ivory comes from, since it was Nell who made them. The novel also reveals his love for Strawberry sundaes and alcohol (which was remembered and featured in the anime too). It also reveals Dante despises smoking.

Devil May Cry: The Animated Series
Twenty years before the start of the series, in a small port town called Morris Island there was a fire that wiped out the whole town. The majority of the townspeople died in the fire, and the few remaining survivors insisted that it was a result of a demon attack. They also insisted that mother of one of the survivors, Tony, is somehow responsible for it. In the present day, another survivor, Ernest, comes to Dante's office and recognizes him as that Tony. Dante denies that, saying he has never met him before. Later he admits that he used the name Tony in the past, although he isn't the Tony Ernest is looking for.

It is never explicitly stated, although it is strongly implied that Dante is, indeed, the Tony from twenty years ago.

Trivia
In early drafts for the first Devil May Cry, Tony Redgrave was to be a detective and partner of Dante's.